The designers of mechanisms for reclining chairs perennially seek to overcome certain styling constraints which the use of conventional reclining chair mechanisms place on the `looks` of reclining chairs.
Reclining chairs typically have tall backs, so that the user's head will be cradled on the headrest pillow as the chair goes from its fully erect into its TV and fully reclined positions.
In order to overcome styling constraints necessitated by tall backs, low back recliners with pop-up headrests heretofore have been designed. A pop-up headrest typically stores retracted in the backrest or in a folded-over condition, then projects or rotates to an extended condition as the chair back is rotated down from a fully erect condition.
Conventional reclining chairs also typically need to be situated a substantial distance away from a wall or other furniture that is behind them, so that as their backs recline, the upper ends of the backs do not hit the wall or other furniture.
Low back recliners are one way to solve the wall-spacing problem, since a low back does not protrude so far rearwardly when it is reclined as does a tall back.
Wall-saver recliner designs represent another way to solve the wall-spacing problem. On such chairs, the seat and arm frame to which the back is mounted, shifts a substantial distance forwards as the backrest reclines, so that the top of the backrest never moves much nearer to the wall than where it is when the backrest is fully erect.
A third design prior art attempt to solve the problem comprises a combination of a low back, a wall-saver mechanism, and a pop-up headrest. Such a combination has been attempted, but has tended to be complex, and impose other unwanted restrictions on the looks of the chairs, for instance, that the chair backrest be unusually thick and/or that the movable frame be unusually split into two portions which must be moved relative to one another for popping-up and stowing the headrest.